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5 Responses to “Jill Bolte Taylor”

I’ve been recommending a book by Jill Bolte Taylor called “My Stroke of Insight” to everyone I know. It’s an amazing story, both uplifting and powerful on three levels: physical, emotional, and spiritual, but the spiritual aspect alone makes this the best book I’ve read all year.

How often do you get to hear a neuroscientist describe having a stroke, nearly dying and finding Nirvana, and then making a miraculous recovery so that she’s back to teaching medical students!?!

I came away with a renewed sense of understanding, wonder and hopefulness about the capabilities of the human brain. I give “My Stroke of Insight” highest marks!

The New York Times Sunday Newspaper on May 25 had a great two page article on Jill Bolte Taylor and her book, “MY STROKE OF INSIGHT”. Her book is a must read and this NY Times article – called “A Superhighway to bliss” is worth checking out too.

I read “My Stroke of Insight” in one sitting – I couldn’t put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it’s a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I’ve ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.

MY STROKE OF INSIGHT was ranked #5 in all books sold on Amazon today and #1 in Memoirs above even Barbara Walters’ memoir. Babs had been promoting her book for months in advance and Dr. Taylor’s book was self-published.

Then Oprah recommended it. There’s the Power of Now, and then there’s the Power of Oprah!!

“My Stroke of Insight” is out in Hardcover now for less than the old paperback edition. Amazon has it for 40% off.

Hi, I’ve had a massive stroke May 1,2006. I also was a schizophrenic. I say was because about 10% of schizophrenics who reach middle age for some unknown reason recover. I was one of the blessed 10%. How am I sure? Well my schizophrenia began to disappear when I was 45 ( I’m 53 now) and one of the very first things that I was finally able to do after 25 years of attempts was to get sober. You see I’m alcoholic as well but because of my schizophrenia I was never able to even get two years of sobriety. Now I’m coming up on 8 years. My schizophrenia lifted and I looked around and it was like Rip Van Winkle waking up. I had no work history. I had never worked at any one place for as long as six months. This was all brand new. I wasn’t homeless anymore and wasn’t going to be. I had been homeless at least 15 of those 25 years maybe more. I wasn’t sure how to approach this. First off, was it real? Well after five years of trying to put one foot carefully in front of the other I was ready to try and make a life with what time I had left. I picked out a small town to make my new start and took a bus there. I was in the motel over the weekend and on Monday I woke up early to have coffee and to get ready to go apartment hunting. And wham I had a massive stroke. It has been just over two years since my stroke. I hope you’re reading this because I’m typing it with one hand. I’m writing because my neurologist says the window for my recovery has closed. I think that’s bull pucky. I’ll tell you why. On May 1st of this year I could sometimes just barely touch my forehead with my left hand. And now I can not only touch it but run my hand from my forehead all the way over to the back of my head. Another reason. When I was in my twenties I met some guy outside the Y in Madison, WI. It was about 3 A.M. He told me the most amazing story. When he was a teenager, he and a group of friends had been out wildly carousing in a car. He was seated in the back seat on the right side and leaning halfway out the window. Suddenly the driver took a sharp right turn throwing him out even further. And his head left a groove in a parked car from the rear bumper up to the back door completely wiping away the entire left hemisphere of his brain. It took him twenty years but his right brain took over all the left brain functions that were now missing. I told my neurologist this and he tried to put me on anti-psychotics. I told him that I was in pain and he prescribed me anti-psychotics. I tried to fumble my way into a relationship and he tried to put me on anti-psychotics. I tried to explain to him that I was no longer schizophrenic and he tried to put me on anti-psychotics. Do you see a pattern here? Anyway back to the man with what I felt had an amazing story. I figured if this guy who had lost 50% of his brain could make a full recovery, well then no matter how much of my brain had died I could too. After all I have a slight advantage. I have or had a 165 I.Q. You can’t tell from my college or University records because I’d hit 4.0 or 3.8 one semester and hit 0.056 the very next. I never really let on that I was schizophrenic. Better to be a child molester. Society is more willing to be open to pedophiles than schizophrenics. I think a lot of that has to do with tv and movies portraying us as the psycho lurking just outside your bedroom window. No not to kill you but to kill and cannabalize you. There’s a reason I’m writing, though I have no idea of how to get this letter to you so I’m just going to blizzard it all over the web in the hope that you’ll run across one copy. I know I shouldn’t be doing that. Anyway your stroke sounds similar to mine yet you recovered after eight years. It took me a year and a half to learn how to tie my shoes. It took 5 months to learn how to rip open a packet of sugar. My voice is hoarsie to say the least. I think some people assume by the way that I talk that I’m mentally retarded. I’m not going to read your book. I have real problems reading as much as six pages. Will that get better? I used to read an average of 150 pages a day. I know this because I calculated that I read just over 16,000 pages in 3 and a half months one semester. So what can you tell me? I’m spiritual but I don’t want to lay that on you because it might be a little too much in an introduction. But I do know where the kingdom of heaven is and that’s better than 99.999% of christians maybe more. And I really know, this just isn’t talk. Write back. mikebar@att.net